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I was talking to my friend who is also booklover about out current reads at the time. She said she was reading Ika Natassa's Critical Eleven. I said to her, oh it's on my next target to buy, but not now....

I wasn't a fan of Ika Natassa, although I admit I love her writing style and her signature wordplay. So I didn't buy any of her book right away when it was released. But I told my friend, about how I love her short story in Autumn Once More. I can't remember the title, but it was such a nice short story. I love all of the short stories in it.

My friend... hasn't read anything in it, then asked me of what short story she made as all she knew, Ika Natassa never wrote one. "She did," I said. I told her in brief of how the story was...

"Wait! I think it's kind the same with the one I'm reading now, Critical Eleven. But it's a novel."

Ahh, she turned it into a novel. Worth one to elaborate more.

I don't follow her Twitter. Some of my friends said almost the same thing, that she gave lots of teasers there about this book, boosting the promotion prior to its release. She made it greatly.

However, after she told me that it's actually the same story... I bought it right away. I wanna know how Ale and Anya's story after they're getting apart at the airport.

In Autumn Once More, they met without a purpose but Ale for going back to rig for work, and Anya to travel. It's how the two characters were being put into turbulence of questions on their next stop in life during their flight. They got what they weren't expecting to come so soon: a spark of love.

Another question left in their minds before being apart: should they pursue it?

The answer was found in the novel form with the same name of the short story, Critical Eleven.

I was thinking it might be about how they search for each other and struggle the different timezones and all that, but not really. Ika Natassa surprised me with the plot twist, they're in separation after being married for some years. Then, we were led to the 'HOW IT HAPPENED'.

If you read reviews on Goodreads, you can see some reviewers saying, the character was so cold... the author did lack of research... and many details should be mentioned but they weren't. It all regarding around the 'HOW IT HAPPENED' became the root of the problems of the split.

Yes, it is quite upsetting for putting pregnancy (fail or not fail) to women only.

Yes, it is not sensitive for a guy to deal with brokenhearted mother with blaming 'what if'.

However, it is surprising on 'HOW IT ENDED'. Like seriously, you think another kid/baby can replace one that has gone? It is way more insensitive. One reviewer also complained about it.

But the more I think about it, I think Ika Natassa isn't trying to say that the second pregnancy was to replace the failed pregnancy, but as the form of second chance for both character to rebuild their life together.

Well, it was purely love story, with another 'hitting rock bottom' plot and how they overcome the situation. It was nicely written, very urban kind of feels, but plain. You might be wow-ed on awesome life Anya and Ale had, but not for the core of their love story.

So, I don't know whether I need to watch it. But I can tell you, I really like reading it, even though not a big fan of such kind of story. I was about to watch it premiere but the pre-sale tickets was sold out very quickly. Till now, I haven't watched it.

If you enjoy reading the websites or even as simple and quick as tweets of @SejarahRI on Twitter, you might be happy reading this one.

Been having this book as my bedtime stories lately. Put it on my desk beside my bed, sometimes I did sleep with it. Because I was overslept---many times. Because I have no nightstand. Well... many reasons. Most of all, I got only one hour before passing out to read the stories. It's just nice, though, to waking up beside a book while you got no boyfriend. However, one hour per day had been enough and wonderful for me to get this one finished really quick without needing to speed up.So, this is a collection of shortstories in random timeline yet not able confuse me, though (Thank God! Coz I'm sucks with timeline). I can say, all of those story cuts were a bit scattered. That's why it is quite a page turner.

Even though it's scattered, somehow, each cuts highlighted many details that might affect the whole story we didn't realize. But I won't tell you here as it would be spoiler. In the end, we realized that we have read history book with lots of joy and fast, unlike we did in school (with many same things and lie repeated, over and over). The point of this publication is to bring lots of funny and unique stories of Soekarno, in order to see him as a human being. And yes, they succeed to make us see the other side of such a big guy like Soekarno. He was indeed purely genuine one human being.

Oh, one little thing that surprised me: I saw photos of Soekarno riding a bike, but who knows he's really good at it. I mean, really freakin' great! It was said he could do freestyling? Hahaha... He was told as someone who can stop his bike without his feet touching the ground. Well, for someone like me who cannot ride a bike, I was like, 'Whoa...'

The book depicted Indonesia pre-independence and post-independence better than in history books we have in school. (Sorry I have to bring it up again). The writers in the book surely leveraged the journalism writing style, right from collecting the facts, data, and how they developed it before turning into writing piece. I can tell you, its writing style is also enjoyable and as inspiring as the lead character they told, seems that they were so inspired and on fire when they wrote this story as if they did storytelling for us about it in person.

Yet, all of this story might be rumours. Or this might be true.

I think we have to appreciate @SejarahRI for doing this, especially for Soekarno---from their website, twitter stories and go down to this book. From the intentions, effort, and writing style that is simply beautiful without trying too hard.

And yes, we finally can tell people to see Soekarno's life ended as a designated tragedy, not natural cause---just how some other people in this country and many else in the world believe so.

Certainly, other than more detailed ones, you might catch various unexpected twist and different version of the stories. Well, one thing today's generation agreed with past generations is that we cannot afford living in lies, that we need to rewrite the history fairly.

By the way, they also have Indonesia Poenya Tjerita and published by the same publishers.